Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) which is a complex disorder influenced by both genetic and environmental components has become a major public health issue throughout the world. Currently, research to parse out the underlying genetic contributors to T2D is mainly through the use of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) focusing on identifying genetic components of the organism's genome. Recently, research has indicated that the risk of developing T2D may also involve factors from the ‘other genome’ that is—the ‘intestinal microbiome’ (also termed the ‘gut metagenome’).
Previous metagenomic research on the gut metagenome, primarily using 16S rRNA and whole-genome shotgun (WGS) sequencing, has provided an overall picture of commensal microbial communities and their functional repertoire, e.g., a catalogue of 3.3 million human gut microbial genes were established by MetaHIT consortium in 2010 and, of note, a more extensive catalogue of gut microorganisms and their genes were later published by the Human Microbiome Project Consortium.
However, more work is still required to understand T2D.